Dispenser for viscous condiments

ABSTRACT

A dispenser for viscous condiments including a tubular sidewall having opposite ends. One opposite end is open and can receive a plunger or piston therein for applying force to a condiment contained within the tubular sidewall. The other end of the sidewall includes a dispenser valve assembly including a member secured to an inturned flange portion of the sidewall with the flange portion being generally normal to the sidewall. The dispenser valve assembly is suitably secured to the flange portion as by heat sealing, such as a bead of hot melt, to form a composite laminated structure that is resistant to the penetration of liquid elements of the condiments. The dispenser valve assembly further includes a valve plate having one or more selectively openable discharge openings that will open and close under the influence of the pressure applied to the condiment in order to discharge the condiment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a Divisional of and claims priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 11/836,555 filed Aug. 9, 2007 to Ronald D.Robertson and Wayne F. Schneider entitled “Dispenser For ViscousCondiments,” which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,781 on Apr. 3, 2012,the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference tothe extent permitted by law.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The dispensing of viscous condiments, e.g., mustard, ketchup,mayonnaise, sandwich spreads and the like, is commonly done inrestaurants. In order to handle the volume throughput requirements inrestaurant kitchens, devices have been constructed for dispensing suchcondiments from tubes (packages) with the assistance of mechanicalpump-type devices. Such devices are similar in construction to caulkingguns. An example of such a device may be found in U.S. Pat. No.4,830,231. While such devices have been effective, they do have someshortcomings.

It is desirable to eliminate material from the tubes that is notnecessary. Even a small amount of material savings in a container canresult in significant cost savings because of the large quantityrequired by restaurants, particularly in the fast food industry.However, to eliminate material, new assembly techniques may be needednecessitating new manufacturing equipment which adds again to theexpense of the containers. Additionally, when viscous materials arecontained in a container it is highly desirable to impede the migrationof liquids such as water and lipids (fats) into the container materialwhen such container material includes paperboard which can absorb andtransfer such liquids by wicking. The absorption of such liquids cancause a detrimental appearance to the package and may even cause itsunnecessary disposal. Typically, a condiment dispenser, such as thatshown in the above-identified patent, was assembled using hot meltadhesives to join various container portions at the discharge endthereof. It would be desirable to reduce or eliminate this use of hotmelt adhesive as a major element providing structural integrity to thepackage. Hot melt can cause detrimental generation of steam frommoisture contained in various packaging components, particularlypaperboard during assembly. The steam can cause problems such as formingtiny bubbles and/or holes through the hot melt thereby permitting oiland moisture to pass into raw edges of the paperboard tube. Thus, thetube (package) may become saturated, soften and begin to fall apart.

It is therefore desirable to provide an improved condiment dispenser. Itis also desirable to provide an improved dispenser that has a reductionin the materials used and a reduction in the cost to manufacture.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a container usable as a dispenser foruse with viscous flowable condiments. The container includes a sidewallthat is generally tubular forming a storage compartment for a viscouscondiment. The sidewall has opposite ends, one of which is preferablyopen for receipt of a piston therein. The piston can be used to applyforce to the condiment within the container to induce dispensing. Theother end of the container is a normally closed end having a dispensingvalve assembly. The dispensing valves are located on a valve platesecured to a mount plate which is secured to an inturned flange formedas part of the sidewall. The sidewall may be a convolute formed tubewith a longitudinal seam. A removable membrane cover may be secured overthe dispensing valve assembly which will provide a tamper-evident seal.The membrane cover is attached to the dispensing valve assembly beforethe valve assembly is attached to the sidewall. A die may be used to cutthe perimeter shape of the membrane cover so that it precisely fitswithin an opening formed by the inturned flange. A portion of themembrane cover may be reverse bent to provide for gripping andsubsequent removal of the cover. The dispensing valve assembly may besecured to the inturned generally flat flange and have an outer exposededge portion engaging a hot melt material to cover all or substantiallyall of the exposed edge. Preferred materials for the sidewall and aportion of the dispensing valve assembly are paperboard and can have apolymer coating thereon to help effect resistance to penetration byliquids, and to help effect the joining of various components to oneanother as by heat sealing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of a condiment dispenser shown partiallyin section and held by a dispensing gun in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the dispensing end of thecondiment dispenser in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but with a peel-off closure membercovering the dispensing openings;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the dispensing endof FIG. 3 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary top view of a web of covers that are partiallydie cut and interconnected together via their ears prior to theirsecurement to a valve assembly in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

The same numbers used throughout the various figures designate like orsimilar parts and/or structure as described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The reference numeral 1 designates generally a condiment dispenser foruse in the storage and dispensing of viscous condiments 2 such asketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, sandwich spread and the like. Suchcondiments 2 can be water and/or lipid based. In a preferred embodiment,the condiment dispenser 1 includes a feed device 3 that may be in theform of a trigger gun for use in applying force to a piston 4 which willin turn pressurize the condiment 2 for dispensing through a dispenservalve assembly 5 having one or more dispensing openings 6. Duringdispensing, the piston 4 moves toward the valve assembly 5. The feeddevice 3 can be manually operated for example by having a trigger or maybe power operated for example by having an electric motor-driveractuator. Preferably, the feed device 3 is easily sanitized as bywashing without detriment to the feed device.

The condiment dispenser 1 includes a sidewall 10 that may be formed of apolymeric-coated paperboard having a longitudinal seam 11 formed byoverlapping edge margin portions 12 which may be secured together as byheat sealing of the polymeric coating. Preferably, the paperboard of thesidewall 10 has a thickness suitable to contain the condiment in storageand under dispensing pressure. The polymeric coating may be polyethyleneor the like as are known in the art. Seam 11 may be formed as by heatsealing edge margins 12 as is also known in the art. The sidewall 10 hasan inturned flange portion 14 which has a significant portion thereofgenerally perpendicular to the sidewall 10 and relatively flat. Theflange 14 has an outer face 15 and an opening 16 which is defined by aninternal edge 17. The outer face 15 of the flange 14 is flush toslightly below flush with the free end 13 of the sidewall 10, e.g. about3/16 inch or less. Preferably the opening 16 is generally round as bestseen in FIGS. 2, 3. When the flange 14 is formed, a plurality of pleats18 may occur which can be easily accommodated by subsequent assemblysteps as described below. The pleats 18 add rigidity to the flange 14.Flange 14 may be formed by a roll forming process and may be held in itsformed position by attachment to the valve assembly 5.

The valve assembly 5 closes one end of the chamber 19 formed by sidewall10 and is adapted for the selective release of condiment 2 from thechamber 19. In the illustrated structure, the valve assembly 5 issecured in covering relation to the opening 16 and is preferably securedto an inside face 20 of the flange 14. As shown in FIG. 4, the valveassembly 5 includes a mount plate 21 in the form of an annular ring ordisk having opposite side faces 22, 23, an outer perimeter edge 24 andan inner edge 25 defining a through opening 26. Preferably, the opening26 is in axial alignment with the opening 16 providing communicationbetween the chamber 19 and the exterior of the dispenser 1.

A slitted valve plate 31 is attached to the mount plate 21 preferably bysecurement to the face 22. The valve plate 31 is preferably located onthe interior side of the plate 21. In a preferred embodiment, the valveplate 31 is in the form of a polymeric sheet, for example, low densitypolyethylene, having a plurality of the dispensing openings 6 in theform of die cut slits which can be in the form of an X for each opening.When the condiment 2 is pressurized by force applied to the piston 4,flaps 32 formed by the X die cut slit will resiliently move outwardlyallowing openings 6 to be exposed in the plate 31 for the condiment toflow through. During dispensing, the piston 4 moves along the chamber 19toward the valve assembly 5. When pressure is relieved, the flaps 32move back to a closed or partially closed position. As shown, the plate31 is secured to the face 22 as by heat bonding. In a preferredembodiment, the plate 21 is polymeric-coated paperboard element allowingheat bonding of the plate 21 to the flange 14 and to the valve plate 31.The openings 6 are positioned inside or inwardly of the edge 25. One ormore openings 6 may be provided albeit four are shown in FIG. 2.

As seen in FIG. 4, the edge 24 of the plate 21 is sealed by a bead ofhot melt 35. Typically, during assembly of paperboard items, thepaperboard will contain a certain amount of moisture. When thepaperboard is heated, for example, during the application of hot melt orvia the heat sealing process to join parts or areas together, the waterin the paperboard will turn to steam and migrate out of the paperboardwhen possible. In the present invention, the openings 6 may be used as asteam vent should same be produced in the plate 21 during theapplication of hot melt as a caulking agent.

It should be pointed out that since plates 21 and 31 along with sidewall10, flange 14 and valve plate 31 all have polyethylene (or the like)coated surfaces, they can be heat welded together thereby eliminatingthe need for a hot melt to act as a structural component. Typically,when the paperboard elements are formed, they are die cut leaving“rough” edges that are uncoated. Such edges provide a means for ingressand egress of liquid vapor into the paperboard matrix. As best seen inFIG. 4, a bead of hot melt 35 is applied proximate the edge 24 of plate21, the sidewall 10, and flange 14. It has been found that this hot meltfunctions primarily to seal the package and since the structuralintegrity is accomplished via the heat welding of the poly coatedsurfaces, rather than via hot melt, less hot melt is required and it maybe of a less complex nature. Thus, the package is inherently strongerand less expensive to construct.

A cover 45 in the form of a membrane may be provided to selectivelyclose the openings 6 for storage and shipping of the dispenser 1. Thecover 45 may be adhesively secured the outer surface 23 of plate 21 inoverlying relation to the openings 6. The cover 45 may be in the form ofa polymeric-coated paper element or may be a polymeric material. It ispreferred that the cover 45 be resistant to penetration by liquids. Withthe construction of the package as described above, when the hot melt isapplied as shown and described with respect to FIG. 4, the air tightseal between plate 21 and cover 45 closes off the escape route of steamto the outside. But for the construction of the present invention, thepressure of the steam would be high enough that it would pass throughthe hot melt rendering the hot melt caulking ineffective because oil andmoisture then could pass into the raw edge 24 and saturate the paper anddamage the integrity of the package. It is preferred that there be anair gap 26 a between at least a portion of the cover membrane 45 and theouter surface 46 of the valve disk 31 to provide for the release ofsteam should any be generated in the plate 21 during and shortly afterthe application of the hot melt 35. This gap 26 a would allow for steam,if steam is generated, to move in the direction of the arrows 26 b andbe discharged through the opening 6 into the chamber 19. FIG. 4 showsthe steam's path 26 b as it exits plate 21. Steam can exit plate 21through edge 25. Upon exiting edge 25 of plate 21, the steam enters airgap 26 a. Once the steam is in air gap 26 a, it can then exit intochamber 19 and the atmosphere through openings 6.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cover 45 has a plurality of circumferentiallyspaced ears 47 projecting from an outer perimeter 48 thereof. The cover45 also includes a tab portion 50 having an ear 47. FIG. 4 is asectional view of FIG. 3 taken about line 4-4. Therefore, neither theears 47 nor the tab 50 are depicted in FIG. 4. However, both the ears 47and the tab 50 can be seen in FIG. 3.

Preferably, during the manufacturing of valve assembly 5, a plurality ofcovers 45 are included in a web made from a single piece of material. Inthe web, the covers 45 are partially die cut and interconnected togethervia their ears 47. The valve assembly 5 may be appropriately alignedwith a respective cover 45 in the web. Once the dispenser 1 is alignedwith a cover 45, the cover 45 may be bonded to the plate 21. As shown,the bonding of the cover 45 to the plate 21 can take place in theannular ring area on surface 23 defined edges 17 and edge 25. It will beappreciated by one skilled in the art that one bonding method includesheat bonding cover 45 to plate 21. After the cover is bonded to theplate 21, the final die cutting of the cover form the web can beaccomplished by cutting the ears 47. Once the ears 47 are cut, the cover45 is completely detached from the web.

As mentioned above, the cover 45 has a tab portion 50. Tab portion 50provides the user a place to grip the cover 45 to assist in its removalfrom the valve assembly 5. After the cover 45 is bonded to the valveassembly 5, but before the valve assembly 5 is secured to sidewall 10,tab portion 50 may be folded back toward the outer surface of cover 45.The folding of tab portion 50 allows surface 23 of plate 21 to bedirectly mated to the inner face 20 of flange 14 without the tab portion50 interfering. If tab portion 50 were not folded, it could extend intothe seal created between surface 23 and face 20. This could prevent theproper sealing of plate 21 to sidewall 10. Additionally, it wouldprevent the cover 45 from being removed from the dispenser 1 because thetab portion 50 of cover 45 would be permanently sealed between surface23 and face 20. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that atab portion 50 that is ¾″ long by ⅜″ wide is sufficient.

Thus, there has been shown and described several embodiments of a novelinvention. As is evident from the foregoing description, certain aspectsof the present invention are not limited by the particular details ofthe examples illustrated herein, and it is therefore contemplated thatother modifications and applications, or equivalents thereof, will occurto those skilled in the art. The terms “having” and “including” andsimilar terms as used in the foregoing specification are used in thesense of “optional” or “may include” and not as “required.” Manychanges, modifications, variations and other uses and applications ofthe present invention will, however, become apparent to those skilled inthe art after considering the specification and the accompanyingdrawings. All such changes, modifications, variations and other uses andapplications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of theinvention are deemed to be covered by the invention which is limitedonly by the claims which follow.

We claim:
 1. A method of making a condiment dispenser comprising:forming a tubular housing having first and second end portions, saidfirst end portion having an inwardly extending flange; forming a supportmember having first and second opposing surfaces, raw inner and outeredges and a through opening defined by said inner edge; forming aperforate member with at least one dispensing opening; attaching saidperforate member to said second surface of said support member to form adispensing valve assembly; forming a web containing a plurality of sealmembers, said seal members connected to one another in the web by earportions; aligning one of said seal members with said support member;attaching the aligned seal member to said first surface of said supportmember thereby resulting in an air gap between said perforate member andsaid seal member; severing the attached seal member from said web;positioning said dispensing valve assembly such that the outer edge ofthe support member is adjacent an inside surface of said tubularhousing; and applying a bead of hot melt adhesive proximate said supportmember outer edge and said tubular housing for sealing said supportmember outer edge; wherein said support member inner edge is adaptedsuch that any steam created within said support member during theapplication of said hot melt adhesive to said support member outer edgemay migrate out of said support member through said inner edge, intosaid air gap and be released into said tubular housing through said atleast one dispensing opening.
 2. A method of making a condimentdispenser comprising: forming a tubular housing having first and secondend portions, said first end portion having an inwardly extendingflange; forming a support member having first and second opposingsurfaces, raw inner and outer edges and a through opening defined bysaid inner edge; forming a web containing a plurality of seal members,said seal members connected to one another in the web by ear portions;aligning one of said seal members with said support member; attachingthe aligned seal member to said first surface of said support member;severing the attached seal member from said web; forming a perforatemember with at least one dispensing opening; attaching said perforatemember to said second surface of said support member thereby resultingin an air gap between said perforate member and said seal member;positioning said support member such that the outer edge of said supportmember is adjacent an inside surface of said tubular housing; andapplying a bead of hot melt adhesive proximate said support member outeredge and said tubular housing for sealing said support member outeredge; wherein said support member inner edge is adapted such that anysteam created within said support member during the application of saidhot melt adhesive to said support member outer edge may migrate out ofsaid support member through said inner edge, into said air gap and bereleased into said tubular housing through said at least one dispensingopening.